Palmyra’s famous temples will rise again from the desert sands, Syria’s top archaeologist has promised, as he prepared to inspect how much of the ancient city survived or can be salvaged from the ravages of Islamic State.

“We will not leave the temples destroyed,” Maamoun Abdelkarim, Syria’s director of antiquities, said.

The picture shows a group of Syrian soldiers at a Palace complex in the western edge of Palmyra.